Examples

Vivid Description   "In a display at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, among half-melted lumps of metal and glass, blasted bits of brick and stone, and swatches of burned clothing, sits the charred remnant of a wristwatch.  The minute and hour hands have been burned away, but their shadows remain, imprinted forever by the brilliant flash of the first nuclear weapon ever exploded over a city" (Lydia Dotto).

In the Midst of the Action   "The Mercedes taxi sped along the country highway.  For the tenth time since we left Paris that  morning, I looked at the piece of paper in my hand."

"The two of us--my mother and I--walked south on Fifth Street one morning to the corner of Q  street and turned right. Half of the block was occupied by the Lincoln School . . . a new building,  painted yellow, with a shingled roof that was not like the red tile of the school in Mazatlan.  I noticed other differences, none of them very reassuring" (Ernesto Galarza).

Personal Anecdote    "Long ago--in Germany, near the end of the war--two corpsmen came into the field and lifted me into a litter.  They were so careful and gentle that for their sake I gave a little groan, though I felt no pain.   They strapped the litter to some metal bars above the back seat of their jeep.   One of them sat beside me while the other drove.  It was dark" (James McConkey).

  "I remember, to start with, that day in Sacramento, in a California now nearly thirty years past, when I first entered a classroom--able to understand about fifty stray English words" (Richard Rodriguez).

Startling Statement  "I do not believe in Belief" (E. M.Foster).  " No young man believes he shall never die."  (William Hazlitt)

Surprise  "I've often wondered what goes into a hot dog.  Now I know and I wish I didn't."

Quotation      "Something someone else has said that is familiar to your reader (i.e. Shakespeare, etc.): 'O death,  where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?'  Where, indeed.  Many a badly stung survivor, faced with the aftermath of some relative's funeral, has ruefully concluded that the victory has been won hands down by the funeral home--in disastrously unequal battle" (Jessica Mitford).